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"Conoco has built a Linux-based supercomputer for finding oil
and gas beneath the Earth's surface, saying the machine costs a
tenth of the average price of a conventional supercomputer. The
computer uses dozens of single- and dual-processor Intel-based
computers connected by a 10-mbps network, 10 terabytes of hard disk
storage and a tape library. The company declined to provide further
details on the hardware."

"The machine can perform 500 billion calculations per
second, said Alan Huffman, manager of Conoco's seismic imaging
technology center. Linking collections of relatively inexpensive
Linux computers has become a popular way to build low-budget
supercomputers called "Beowulf clusters." Conoco used a method
similar to the Beowulf approach, including its own modifications to
the Linux kernel, Huffman said."

"Conoco decided its Linux machine was a good idea, even
accounting for the $4 million cost of rewriting its software. The
hardware cost an additional $1.75 million, Huffman said, and the
company will spend another $1.5 million to double the computer's
performance by the end of 2001."